Saturday 9 March 2013

Commission Thumbnails 1

 I have two minutes to make an audio-visual revision tool (try saying that ten times fast) on the structure of eukaryotic cells. I won't be going down the heavily stylistic route or the 'whee look how cool science is' route (science is already cool), instead I'll be making my animation for people with a degree of prior knowedge. This is due in no small part to the fact that I am a terrible teacher.


 Studies of cell components. There will be more of these in the future.

A very simple map of the cell. Nothing is labelled, but I know what everything means.

This is one possible 'route map' for the animation. Not this particular camera move, obviously, but the 'itinerary'; nucleus, nucleolus, smooth ER, rough ER, ribosome, Golgi complex, vesicle, mitochondrion, centriole, lysosome. This path roughly follows the movement of RNA and protein through the cell, with some license taken to fit everything in.

As I'm not going to be stylising the structure or anatomy of the cell, I have a different problem in creating visual interest. Therefore, I'll be focusing on my screencraft, particularly lighting. At this point I have two possible 'gimmicks' for my lighting, one being lighting inside the cell components themselves that switch on and off, and the other being a light locked to the camera to give the sense of an explorer carrying a torch, or a submarine and its light. I have no doubt more light setups will follow.

4 comments:

  1. ooh - 'light locked to a camera' - fascinating. I got your email, and will feedback accordingly asap. In the meantime, Meg - don't give in to self-doubt or boring stuff like that: your time is now! :) Onwards!

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  2. Hi Meg, i really like that idea of creating the illusion that there is a torch being held. That'll make for some great atmosphere :)

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  3. OGR 10/03/2013

    Hi Meg,

    Yep - okay, your OGR was, um - minimal, but this is what I know about intentions re. Fantastic Voyage from this post and our conversations: 1) you're going for an information-rich, high-end film to be accessed as a revision tool. 2) You're thinking about going for a 'deep-sea' exploration spot-lit aesthetic, as if the audience is discovering the structural stuff in a first person way. The one thing that is absent from these earliest drawings is a sense of colour or how you might be interpreting this world in colour terms? Time for an update, Meg!

    Also - I'm encouraging students to commit to a 'thumbnail animatic' by the early part of this coming week - i.e. getting quick drawings paneled out on a timeline + sound, just so we can have useful discussions prior to you prepping your presentation animatic for the pitch.

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